Navigating Antalya on a Student Budget.

I recently decided that Antalya is my favorite city in the world other than Nairobi. I only spent 3 days there but I was hooked! From the colorful buildings to the cobble streets of Kaleiçi to the palm trees lining Lara Caddesi, I was truly enamored.

Antalya is a city in the south west coast of Turkey bordering the Mediterranean Sea. My friends and I visited the city in the heart of summer when the sun is quite harsh. Being students, my friends and I needed a holiday experience that was affordable yet unforgettable.

Travelling to Antalya

Since we live in Ankara, we decided to take the 7 hour night bus to the city as it was our cheapest option. We booked our bus tickets last minute online from Obilet, a local online booking service. We also returned to Ankara by bus.

Where we stayed

Since we were on a strict budget, hotels were out of the question. We decided to use AirBnB. Our mistake was that we did not book early. We arrived at Antalya early in the morning and shockingly it was already 35 ºC! So there we were, two sweaty tired girls standing at a bus stop scouring all the sites possible looking for dirt cheap accommodation. Since it was 8 in the morning most restaurants had no food yet (wyd Antalya? ) and the malls were closed. After an hour we managed to locate the nearest metro and took the tram to nowhere in particular. At this point I have to confess that we knew nothing about Antalya, and we were heading to a station called Muratpaşa just because it was where most AirBnBs are located.

After a while, we finally got a host who rented us his apartment for the night. In as much as our host was kind and helpful, the house quite unsanitary to the point of being traumatising. We decided not to stay there for the second night and decided to Couch Surf instead.

After a few heart breaking rejections from hosts, we finally found a host for our second night. Cagri, our host, was amazing to say the least. I would definitely ask to stay with him again. Here, I have to note that Couchsurfing is free and for us this was quite a relief.

How to get around

As with most Turkish cities, public transportation can only be accessed by the use of a card. We bought cards for our use during our stay at metro stations and even road side shops. We were huge fans of the tram. However, we ended up using taxis for most of our trip because we often could not find bus stations. It was also impossible for us to walk around looking for bus stations in 46 ºC weather. We also found out that unlike in Ankara, in Antalya you can not find out the specific bus to take to your destination from Google maps.

Where we ate

We stuck to eating at mall food courts because all the restaurants we love are easily found there. It is also easier to compare food prices at a food court rather than individual restaurants.

Where we visited.

1. Beaches

We went to Konyaaltı and Lara Beaches. Konyaaltı is a rocky beach while Lara is a sandy one. I preferred Konyaaltı seeing as I spent days trying to get sand from Lara out of my crochet braids. It is advisable to carry good beach shoes, crocs perhaps, because the rocks can be quite unforgiving to your feet. Entry to both beaches is free, but in the hot sun you may want to spend on renting a beach umbrella.

2. Museums

The Antalya Museum was quite exciting for me as I got to see marble sculptures of Roman gods and goddesses from the ruins of Perge. There are also displays ranging from the palaeolithic age to the Ottoman empire age. There is also the Antalya Toy Museum which unfortunately we could not visit because we ran out of time. Our museum trips were made easier by the fact that we had museum cards which enable us to go to any museum in Turkey after buying them for 5 USD each.

3. Kaleiçi

This was undoubtedly my favorite part of Antalya. It is the old part of the city and is sprawling with shops selling Turkish merchandise such as rugs and blueberry tea. The cobble streets and the untouched stone buildings give it such a rustic feel. It is also here that I saw language used as a survival tactic. Traders switched from Russian to Arabic to English to German as easy as switching a bag from one hand to the other in a bid to sell. I loved it!

4. Yat Limanı

Yat Limanı is a dock for boats and yachts and is perfect for fresh seafood and cruises. We got student discounts for an exciting hour long yacht cruise.